In the old days, I'd have found better ways of using the time. I longed to take myself off to a remote place-- an Artic radio station, a mountain lookout, or -- in grander dreams-- the epic loneliness of a spacecraft. The gentle persistent of daily routines. The making of coffee, the delicacy of chocolate. … Continue reading The Great Release
Category: writing
Alekhine’s Defence
I've been playing a lot of chess recently, so it's nice to have my chess-themed poem 'Alekhine's Defence' published on The High Window. It's a little paean to the time I spent being taught by the rudiments of chess in a coffee-shop on The Hill in Boulder, Colorado, so many years ago. Alekhine's DefenceWeak coffee … Continue reading Alekhine’s Defence
Automated Houses
I visited an old acquaintance, a performance poet who had left the city some years before, and moved to the wilds of the north. Our friendship had always been tentative and slightly awkward, in that I had little respect for his work, and he, I knew, felt the same about mine. Still, after many years … Continue reading Automated Houses
Canvases
At one time or another, the cottage appeared to have been the residence for a landscape painter: Mitchell uncovered scraps of oil-soaked material, brushes, and dried-out paints, and on a set of shelves at the back of the room, he found a pile of canvases. One of the pictures showed a coastal scene, a wide … Continue reading Canvases
Snakes
We headed to the outskirts of the city to buy snakes, travelling by train to a dirt track beside a busy road. We saw them uncoiling by a long ditch that ran along the dark fields: long black snakes, muscular and flexuous, some of them two or three metres in length. Headlights picked up the … Continue reading Snakes
Green Fields
My poem 'Field Party' features in the Green Fields anthology published by Maytree Press, available here. Field Party The sweet trace of fodderon the breeze, the acidof spilled cider. Occasional cars tearing up the air, like the invitesnone of us had received. I don't even remember a house. What signal set us heading outto ooze like summer starlings feeding … Continue reading Green Fields
Notes on the Virus
Part of me always believed that the way we lived was too good to be true, so none of what is happening has come as a surprise. Maybe it's because I come from a family of pessimists. Maybe it's because I've started writing science fiction again, and so was prepared for the idea that the … Continue reading Notes on the Virus
Music From The Island
Scenes From The Island features an electronic musician, Tudor, who moves into the apartment building at the centre of the novel's action, and becomes integral to the tragic direction of the story. As I'm a dangerous loner with too much time on my hands (aren't we all these days?) I've put together a playlist of … Continue reading Music From The Island
My War
I sat out my war in a series of back end stations, always behind the frontline, couched down away from missiles and drones. The days were long and filled with abortive chess moves, and the radios rarely worked. We raided local supplies for wine and cheeses, although these were poor products, lacking in bucolic artistry, … Continue reading My War
Amazing Space
They were heading to the coastal town. Mitchell agreed to join them, which caused Hannah to shoot a look at him, which he couldn't quite read. She walked on the other side of Tudor, her hair wound up in a crimson scarf. A storm appeared to be boiling out over the sea: a refined silver … Continue reading Amazing Space
Absence Club 